


Prohairesis | προαίρεσις

by Immortalnite



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Greek Mythology, Greek Mythology - Freeform, Hades and Persephone, M/M, Underworld
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-10
Updated: 2018-09-24
Packaged: 2019-07-10 10:37:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15947627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Immortalnite/pseuds/Immortalnite
Summary: Shane hated that he never had a choice. He felt like a root-bound vine, hanging over the edge of a pot he was never meant to grow in, searching for some sort of support while the walls of his home slowly choked him. He wanted to leave. He wanted to smash that pot.----It's a Persephone/Hades retelling





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm turning into that one author who writes mythology based AUs

If there was one thing Shane loved with his whole heart, it was critters. Deer, rabbits, foxes, lizards, fish, dolphins, birds. Bugs, he was a little iffy on. He liked mosquitoes to stay far away from him, But butterflies and bees were pretty cool. Plants were lovely too, though he preferred gnarled trees and tangling vines to rank-and-file lines of wheat or barley.

Maybe that was why he found himself tripping through a hidden meadow of wildflowers, blood from his scraped knees running down his calves and into the dirt below his bare feet. Because the wild flora was the only kind he could trust to keep his secrets.

Tears splashed onto his arms, uncontained, as he finally fell down into the tall grasses of the meadow. They hid him easily as he pulled his lanky body around himself and let the tears flow. The grasses whispered in the gentle breeze, quiet reassurances and promises of safety. The earth cradled him and Shane could feel the light press of the soil against his side, the confusion of the meadow at his presence there, though it was no less welcoming. The moonlight silvered the lilies that sprang up around him as his gasping sobs began to ease. When his tears slowed at last, he allowed himself to raise his head and take in the meadow at night.

He’d visited the meadow many times before, of course, but never at night. Never alone. He was always accompanied by the inane chattering of his mother’s simpering sycophants, the grain spirits, or his idiot half brother, Arion. In retrospect, he probably shouldn’t have chosen somewhere that he’d taken anyone before, but it wasn’t like he had many options. When he’d run away from Olympus, the only thing he knew to avoid was farms. The farmed fields of towns couldn’t be trusted, they’d only snitch to his mother about where he went. He’d just let his feet carry him as far away from what his mother would consider civilization as possible, and ended up in the meadow.

Regardless of how easily he probably would be to find, for the moment Shane simply relaxed and lay back. It was a warm night, and crickets chirped in complacent chorus, far away from humans that might disturb their song. The wind and occasional silent brush of a diving owl stirred the grasses around him into whispers. Underneath his bare legs, the dirt felt soft and untouched by the cold metal of a plow. It was gentle out here, gentle and free. Shane let his eyes close. The cradle of grass and soil was so much better than his own bed. His own bed, which had conspired to become his prison.

Out here, the breeze smelled fresh and open. The dirt was so soft and the night air was so welcoming. The cricket’s hum called him to sleep, and Shane succumbed happily.

 

“ _It’s near the harvest! Everyone is celebrating! Can’t I go out and have some fun for once?” Shane crossed his arms over his chest. He didn’t expect her to say yes, but he had hope. Severely misplaced hope._

_Demeter barely looked up. “No, of course you can’t. Go back to sleep.”_

“ _Why?” Shane was sick of being told he couldn’t leave._

“ _Because I said so.”_

“ _That’s not a reason.”_

“ _I’m your mother, that’s reason enough.” Demeter continued to weave the tapestry she was making. It was a sickeningly pastoral scene, young men with muscled backs hunched over a tilled field, sowing it from bags that hung about their waists. “Besides, you went out once today already. You’ve still got the grass stains on your exomie.”_

_Her tone was one of disdain, and Shane quickly moved his hand to cover the green smear on the hem of his chiton. “You always send me out with someone. Can’t I go alone, for once? Arion isn't much older than me and he is allowed to leave whenever.”_

“ _Arion is a horse. You look mortal, what if some idiot decides to hurt you? Can you protect yourself? Didn’t think so.” Her voice was so dismissive it made his hands shake. He felt some sort of power well up inside him in answer to his rage, but it seemed to hit some sort of dam. Tears sprang to his eyes but wouldn’t fall. No matter how much power he could feel churning inside him, all it seemed able to do was choke him up._

_Demeter didn’t even react to his outburst, though Shane knew he was glowing with his godly rage. Nonchalant, she flipped her tapestry over and began to work on the other side. “Go to bed, dearest. It’s late.”_

“ _I’m going to become one of those men in your bath towel before you ever let go of me, huh? Old and bitter like you.” Shane spat, gesturing to the tapestry. The reverse side featured the scene as the front did, only now the young men were old and twisted grandfathers, backs crippled by hard labour in the fields._

_Demeter finally looked up at his outburst, irritation twisting her haughty features. “Bed. Go.”_

“ _Just because you like to lie down and let men plow you like you’re just something to be controlled doesn’t mean you can turn around and do it to whatever else you wish.” Shane shouldn’t goad her, he knew, but he was sick of the constant watching. It barely felt like he could bathe these days without someone chaperoning him._

_Demeter was on her feet in an instant, her hand a burning brand across his face. He blinked in shock and they stared at each other for a moment, both equally surprised._

“ _Son, I-” She reached out for his face again with a gentle hand and Shane flinched. He spun on his heel, throwing the door open. She tried to stop him, he knew. The grape vines, a gift from Dionysus, that curled around the pillars outside their home in regular intervals reached out leafy tendrils that snagged at his clothes, one lashing around his ankle. He fell with a cry, shoving back against the plants with his own power. Thankfully, Dionysus’s wild magic responded happily to his own, already rebelling against the rigid and organised structure that his mother had forced them to grow in. With just a little nudge, the vines turned away from him and began to climb the front of his mother’s home, tangling into a web that sealed the front door. Shane could hear Demeter banging against it and shouting. He got to his feet, ignoring the scrapes on his knees, and ran. He ran down the marble path, through the constrictingly manicured garden, right off the very edge of the palace._

_The rocky slope of Mount Olympus bit at his feet and sand got in his sandals as he ran down, down to the humans domain. He made it to the base of the mountain faster than he ever had before, ears straining for the cry of an eagle the whole time. The sound never came, and he kept running._

 

Shane awoke before just before dawn, though he didn’t know why at first. The moon was low in the western sky, the east just beginning to lighten with Apollo’s coming. Birds flitted around in the trees that surrounded the hidden meadow. Shane sat up warily, a sense of unease filtering through his groggy mind. Something was terribly off. A quail ran through the grass at his feet with her babies and Shane realised what it was.

Though the larks sprang from branch to branch in the forest, not one had opened its mouth to welcome the sun.

The grasses around him began to whisper, frantic, and Shane pressed his body down into the dirt. He could feel it now, through the tremors of the soil. Footsteps. They were thunderous, rapid. Hoofbeats, they sounded like. It had to be his half brother, Arion. And with him, likely their mother.

A sort of fear overtook him, and he reached out blindly. He reached out to the forest, to the earth. To Artemis and Apollo, to Pan and Dionysus. To anyone and anything that would listen and hide him. He wasn’t ready to go back to her, not when he knew her so well. Demeter would be furious when she caught up with him, _if_ she caught up with him. He’d never disobeyed her so directly before, she’d probably lock him up for years.

As the hoofbeats grew closer, another tremor in the earth started. This one, Shane couldn’t identify, but he wasn’t scared. Somehow, he knew this was his help. He staggered to his feet as the ground in front of him split in two, a gaping maw of blackness and stone that, for all he knew, lead straight to Tartarus. In that moment, though, he would have happily taken Tartarus over Demeter’s suffocating grip.

And so he stepped, without a moment of hesitation, into the chasm that had just revealed itself in front of him. Stepped, and fell.

The ground above him moved together with a grating sound, cutting off the last of the sunlight as air whistled past his ears. His mother would find the meadow empty, he knew, only a scar in the earth marking where he had gone. As he hurtled back-first to an unknown fate, Shane smiled.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case you hadn't noticed, the names of the gods in this are more titles than actual names

His spine thumped against something soft, and a great whine filled the cavern he’d fallen into. He flailed in surprise and unbalanced, sliding off the mound he’d fallen onto. Three massive dog heads craned to look at him and, after a moment, a huge tail began to beat the ground in happiness. Shane struggled to his feet as one of the heads knocked playfully into his midriff.

“Hey, hey.” Shane huffed out a laugh, petting the head with both hands. Immediately, the other two heads butted him in the sides, wanting in on the attention. Shane rubbed all of the ears that were shoved in front of him, almost afraid to look around. He loved critters, he did. So he knew all of the god’s pets. He’d never met this dog before, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t very aware of who he belonged to. There weren’t all that many three headed dogs, after all.

“Hey, buddy, I gotta go now. I’ll be back. Good boy, Cerberus.” The dog whined, but sat down and didn’t try to follow him. Shane swallowed thickly at the dog’s recognition of the name. He’d been hoping, just a little, that he’d been wrong. As he finally turned around to get a proper glance at the cavern he was in, he knew hadn’t. No one else but the god of the underworld could possibly have managed such raw magnificence.

The cavern was absolutely enormous, the ceiling of rock as high as the roof in Zeus’s temple. Stalactites hung like daggers from the top, some longer than Shane was tall. Here and there, scattered gem and precious metal deposits winked out from black stone, catching and refracting light from the odd little glowing orbs that illuminated the place.

Just behind Cerberus, a line of humans marched towards a set of towering gates, sorted by a woman with short black hair and wings for arms. Shane hesitated, then followed along the line towards the woman. She looked up when he approached, and immediately dropped into a crouch, muscles tensing to attack.

“Wait!” Shane cried, holding his hands up, palms out. “I’m not- I just need help!”

“How did you even get here, godling?” The woman hissed, not attacking but not moving from her readied position.

“I don’t know, I just fell.” Shane took a careful step backwards, away from the Fury. “I was in a meadow above, and the ground just opened up.”

She snorted. “Sure, you fell in by accident. I believe that. I’m sure there’s nothing you’re looking for then? No human lover, no magical fruit? Gold?” Her tone was heavy with sarcasm.

“Jen, back off. He isn’t lying.” A new voice came from behind the Fury and Shane craned his to see who it was.

Jen seemed to recognise it right away, because she straightened up and stepped aside. “Ry- my lord. You know how the other gods are. We can’t be too careful. We’ve got no way of knowing if he’s being truthful.”

The man stepped in front of Jen to examine Shane and the power rolling off him nearly stole Shane’s breath away. He knew instantly who he was before. Only the brother of Zeus and Poseidon could radiate such an unimaginable power. He swore the man before him was glowing faintly red, as though his skin couldn’t keep it all contained.

The man smiled a brilliant white smile and extended a hand. “Welcome to the underworld, Shane.”

Unsure, Shane shook his hand. “I-”

“I’ll answer your questions back at my home, and you can answer mine.” The man cut him off. “Walk with me.”

Shane hesitated, but he had no choice. He followed the shorter god. The man didn’t talk, didn’t even turn to see if Shane was behind him as he lead the way through the gate in the middle. Some of the souls peered at them with sorrowful eyes, marching in line towards an open field. Far off, Shane could see silhouettes of houses and buildings and twisted trees. Despite the low lighting, the grass in the field was a saturated green that made the human souls who wandered seem washed out by comparison.

“Who are they? My Lord Hades.” Shane spoke without thinking, hastily tacking on the honorific.

“There’s no need for that. You can call me Ryan.” The other god waved a hand dismissively. “They’re the souls who simply _were_ during their lives. Not good, not bad. Their afterlife in the Asphodel Meadow is as unremarkable as their existence.”

“And the other lines? I saw three gates.” Shane asked.

“The other gates are for those who lived exceptional lives, or for those who died of their own heart.” Ryan said this with a weary tone, as though he’d seen more than he cared to discuss.

Shane fell silent, not wanting to push his… host? Captor? Either way, it seemed best to not anger the lord of the underworld. They continued to walk along the edge of Asphodel, Shane occasionally reaching out to brush his fingers against the vibrant grass.

The grass here was quiet, but not dead. It didn’t whisper to him as freely as the plants above did, but that was fitting. The grass didn’t seem haughty, just unfamiliar. It didn’t know him yet. The underworld truly was nothing like Earth, or Olympus. Shane had always lived with the sky, either in a temple set in it, or in a field set below it. Here, the sky had no place. He was surrounded by the rocks and the soil. And, though the system of caverns was nothing more than bubbles of space locked inside stone, he’d never felt more free.

Shane kept his eyes on the ceiling far above and the strange grass of Asphodel until the path began to change beneath his feet. He looked down when the ground began to subtly slope upwards, finally leading to the capitol of the underworld. The path changed from fine grit to a paved strip, a smooth line of polished jasper gleaming in deep green and red with flecks of gold. Ahead of them, lit by fire from massive braziers, a jagged monolith of smoky obsidian stood proudly.

Shane had seen the dwellings of countless gods, everything from decadent temples to dilapidated altars. This was completely unlike those. It was not a place of worship for a god. No, this was a castle, a fortress to rule from. A palace for the King of the Underworld. Which, Shane realised, was what the short god before him that oozed power was. A king.

Humbled, Shane followed him inside. Ryan opened the massive doors of gold and iron with a touch of his hand, the action almost careless. Shane was lead to a long dining table in front of a crackling fire, though the table was bare. He waited for Ryan to take his seat at the head before he sat, just to the left. No servants were in sight.

“I would offer you food, but who ever eats the food here is always doomed to return. Can’t imagine you want that.” Ryan said with a wry smile, addressing Shane for the first time in what felt like hours.

“I am grateful enough for what you have done already.” It came out stiff, too formal, even to his own ears.

“Yes, that. I heard you call out, asking for help and a place to hide. I am happy to grant you asylum here, but I need to know why. Who are you hiding from?” Ryan leaned forward, steepling his fingers. There was an undertone of urgency in his voice.

“My mother. Demeter.” Shane’s voice cracked on her name and he winced. “I just had to get away from her. She’s too much.”

Ryan examined his face carefully, looking for something. “You prayed for anyone to take you away, an open offer, all to get away from your mother?”

Shane nodded.

It must have been satisfactory, because Ryan sat back. “You are free to go whenever you wish to, then. I will not keep you here, but you may remain if you so desire.”

Shane breathed a sigh of relief. “I can help you, as payment. I’m not sure how, but I’m willing to do whatever you need.”

“There isn’t anything I need done. The company will be enough.” Ryan shook his head. “It’s not like I get many visitors from up top, anyway. Just give me all the hot gossip from Olympus and we’ll call it even.”

Shane’s lips quirked up into a small smile to match the teasing grin on Ryan’s face and he knew he would be alright. “Oh, do I have some gossip for you.”

 

~*~

 

The first week that Shane spent in the underworld, he didn’t see much of Ryan. Occasionally, he would catch a glimpse of the god hurrying around the palace in various garb, but it was only flashes. Ryan gave him free roam of the palace and the underworld, but left him with enough confusing warnings about certain rivers and trees outside that Shane decided it would be better to confine himself to the palace walls and gardens.

He’d worried, initially, that being inside the castle for so long would make him feel trapped again, but he found that he didn’t. Perhaps it was because the palace was so new to him that exploring it was more than enough to occupy him. He suspected, though, that it was because he had chosen for himself to stay inside. Ryan warned him about dangers, but he never once ordered him.

He’d been asked not to go near rivers, only because certain ones could strip his memory, burn him alive, fill him with hateful thoughts, or carry him to Tartarus. He’d been asked to not eat food, because it would tie him to Erebus and make him unable to leave. He’d been asked to stay away from trees, because certain ones could entrap him with false dreams and sinister longings. Ryan never asked him to do something _because he said so._ There was always a reason, and he loved that.

Shane spent the first day in the room Ryan had given him, watching lost spirits wander in the Asphodel Meadow. With no sun or moon, it was hard to tell the time of day. He didn’t know if the underworld ran on a clock like humans did, or if he’d be disturbing anyone by venturing out of his room. Though Ryan had given him free reign of his kingdom for as long as Shane desired, he was wary of overstepping bounds. It wasn’t like he was cooped up, anyway. The room itself was huge, nearly half the size of the entire temple he’d shared with his mother before. The bed was practically a sea of pillows and fluffy blankets, all in red and gold. There wasn’t much else in the room, besides the bed, an empty dresser and the floor-to-ceiling window that overlooked Asphodel. His room was set high in one of the jagged spires of the palace, so he could see nearly to the river Styx from the window. The roof of the cavern didn’t look quite so out of reach anymore.

The second day, Shane went to the garden courtyard in the middle of the palace. There was only one other soul in the garden, a caretaker who seemed to blend into the foliage as though she were part plant herself. Shane wondered if she was some strange sort of dryad. When he waved, the short spirit flushed magenta all the way to the roots of her curly hair and melted into some ivy. Strange caretaker aside, the garden was like nothing he’d ever seen before. Red fruits the size of both his fists glittered like jewels on branches the colour of ash, mushrooms that glowed with some innate blue light hid in the hollows of trees and poppies like drops of blood lined the worn cobblestone paths. The ivy that climbed the inner walls of the courtyard was as hard as rock and translucent, living emeralds. In the center of the garden, that strange grass from the Asphodel Meadow surrounded a sycamore tree, its leaves fiery red and yellow. Shane wandered up to it, taking a hesitant step off the path and towards the tree. The tree was smooth against his back when he sat down, and the garden had a pleasant sort of almost-silence. It was nice to be able to relax. Shane let his eyelids droop closed, content in the garden. When he woke up, a single sycamore leaf lay in his lap, perfectly green.

On the third day, Shane found a library. It was up in the same spire of the castle as his room was, just one level down. He wasn’t sure how he’d missed it, actually. He’d passed the door on his way to the gardens the day before, but somehow hadn’t thought to open it. From the looks of the place, no one had gone in to visit in quite a while. When he cracked open the first book he saw, Shane realised why. Not a single text in the whole room was in a language he could read. Some used the Greek letters that he had learned, but the words were utterly foreign. Others used completely different scripts. A few rolls seemed to be in Egyptian, some with strange symbols made up of patterns of straight lines. The most unsettling ones, though, were hidden on a short shelf in the very back of the library. These books were either utterly blank, or covered in terribly detailed depictions of cannibalism and murder. The thickest book depicted a story that Shane came to realise was the birth of the gods. On the page that showed Zeus’s victory over his father, the corner was stained red. Shane had a horrible feeling that it wasn’t ink. Somehow, though, the book that had only blank pages were more unsettling that the bloodstained chronology. Each page in the ornate tome had an unrealistic sort of emptiness to it, as if Shane was seeing into the emptiness the pages contained, rather than just the plain surface. The book felt… hungry. Ready to devour and record the next turning of aeons.

When the fourth day broke, Shane had figured out how to mark the passage of time. The ceiling above was too high for him to have noticed it when he first came in, but his room provided him a clear view of the crystals set into the rock. Scattered across the top of the cavern, slabs of crystal stuck out of the rock, reflecting the time of day by some old magic. The crystals would change colour, slowly shifting from the clear blue of midday to the burnt red of dusk and purpling blue of night. There were even little pinpricks of white stars in them during the night, though Shane could never identify any constellations that he was familiar with in their depths. It was as if they were part of the original body of Ouranos, shards of the primordial sky that had existed long before all else had come to be.

By the fifth day, Shane had gotten a little more adventurous in his exploration of the castle. He came down from the spire his room was in, taking the winding stairs down. And down. And down. When he reached the ground floor, he didn’t turn to walk the halls as he had the day before. Instead, he followed the stairs further down into the belly of the castle. The lighting grew darker, deeper, the torches and floating little balls of light becoming less and less common the further he went. The darkness began to take on a nearly tangible form, shadows seeming to jump and twist of their own accord. For some reason, it didn’t scare Shane. He kept going.

When it became too dark to see, he simply shut his eyes. He was deep underground, he knew. When he pressed his palm to the wall, he realised that, at some point, the polished castle walls had given way to hard-packed dirt. He could sense the press of the earth, colder and more uncaring than he’d ever felt before, all around him. And something else was there. Something far, far older than him. It whispered to him in a thousand voices, beckoning, luring him in. The ground underneath him became uneven and he nearly stumbled, a sudden hand on his shoulder the only thing that kept him from going down.

“Shane!”

He spun, his eyes flying open in the darkness. Behind him, Ryan stood illuminated from within by a faint red glow. Shane could see the anger on his face and he flinched.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. I’ll stay in my room from now on, I promise.” Shane looked away from the angry god.

He heard a sigh and felt Ryan grab his hand, gently pulling him back down the narrow path he’d followed. Ryan said nothing, and Shane’s guilt only grew. He kept his head down even when they reached the polished floor of the first level of the castle.

“Hey, look at me. I’m not mad.” The shorter god only had to step closer to catch Shane’s downturned gaze. Shane looked up slightly when Ryan stepped back again, examining his face more closely. What did he mean, he wasn’t mad? He’d clearly been angered when he’d caught up with Shane. Looking at him now, however, all Shane could see was faint relief.

“I should have told you this, but I never thought you’d go down there. Most souls instinctively turn away from that place.” Ryan took a deep breath. “Shane, that was the entrance to Tartarus.”

Shane’s eyes widened. Tartarus? The pit to which only the worst of human souls were condemned to for an eternity of torture, the pit from which all monster arose, the pit in which the titans were imprisoned for the rest of time? And Ryan kept that under where he slept? “I… I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

Ryan nodded solemnly. “I know. I like to keep the location as secret as I can. I built my castle overtop to protect and contain what’s inside. Zeus, of course, and Poseidon know the location. And now you. Please don’t share the information.”

“I won’t. I’m sorry.” Shane knew he was repeating himself.

“I believe you. And I’m not mad, I promise. I was just scared to see you so close to the edge.” Ryan sighed again and his shoulders relaxed. “I’m sorry that I haven’t been around at all. You haven’t had the chance to pay me back with that promised Olympus gossip yet. Tomorrow, I’ll ditch Jen and show you some of the better parts of my kingdom. Sound good?”

Shane let his lips form a weak, hesitant smile. “Yeah, sounds good.”

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

The morning of the sixth day, Shane was awoken by a sharp rap at his door. He sat up groggily, wondering what the hell the ruckus was, before he remembered Ryan’s promise the day before. He all but jumped out of the mound of pillows, grabbing his chiton and pulling it on quickly as the door opened. Ryan came in just as he was finishing pinning it to his shoulder.

“I’d have brought you breakfast, but...” Ryan shrugged, a grin on his face.

Shane rolled his eyes and began to pull on his sandals. “Some time we should go upstairs, or something, and actually eat together for once. If leaving is something you can do.”

“Hmm, maybe. Depends on if mortal food still tastes terrible.” Ryan leaned against the door frame. “Ready to go?”

Shane stood up. “Yeah. Where are you taking me, by the way?”

Ryan was already going down the stairs, so quickly that Shane had to use his long legs to take the steps two at a time to catch up. “You’ll see. Do you like water?”

Ryan walked very fast for someone of his size, Shane thought as he followed him out the castle and down the path. Maybe he really was worried about Jen catching him.

“Like water? I suppose so. Didn’t you say that I shouldn’t touch any of the rivers here, though?” Shane said as they turned into the Asphodel Meadow and were swallowed by the grass. Ryan finally slowed down enough that Shane could walk next to him.

“I did.” Ryan’s all knowing grin was nearly insufferable.

The grin didn’t slide off his face for their entire walk through the meadow. Shane was utterly lost, but Ryan seemed to have a clear idea of where they were. The bright green grass and occasional poplar tree didn’t give much to go on in terms of geography, but Shane figured Ryan probably knew the cavern roof well enough by now to navigate by that, like an underground sailor mapping the stars.

At last, the grasses started to drop away and Shane got a glimpse of their final destination. Peeking out of the green, a beach of fine purple dust stretched as far as Shane could see to his left. To his right, the beach continued only a little way before it cut off abruptly into sharp cliffs of cut gem. Waves crashed against the cliffs with a ferocity, but they were gentle and rolling along the beach.

With a grin, Ryan caught Shane’s wrist and started to run towards the beach, nearly tripping over himself as fine grains got in his sandals. Ryan let go when they had almost reached the water, throwing himself down.

“This is just plain old water, Shane. Nothing you can’t touch here.” Ryan grinned up at him, giggling breathlessly.

“What is this beach?” Shane asked, a smile he couldn’t seem to hide on his face. He sat down next to Ryan, far more gracefully than his counterpart had been.

“Oceanus. It’s the edge of my kingdom, where life and death meet.” Ryan’s tone was playful, mocking the weight of his words. “I just think it’s a pretty beach. And the only harmless one in the whole underworld.”

“Are you sure this isn’t going to get Jen to yell at us?” Shane lay back in the dune of amethyst sand, glancing over at his mischievous co-conspirator.

“Nah.” Ryan stretched his arms above his head and Shane took a moment to admire the definition of his muscles. “You won’t get yelled at, only me. Besides, she knows how to run this place better than I do, probably. They don’t need me unless someone _really_ nasty kicks it. ”

“Tell me how that works.” Shane said, running his fingers in lazy spirals through the sand. Oceanus, the dark waters of the mortal realm, lapped at their feet along the beach.

“Sure, I’ll trade ya. Question for a question.” Ryan rolled to his side, propping an elbow up so he could face Shane. “Jen watches the lines of incoming souls. The normal, boring ones get sent right to Asphodel, nothing else needed. Those who died of a broken heart get sent to the Mourning Field. It’s a sad place, lots of crying. Cocytus, the river of wailing, runs right through it.” Ryan paused and shuddered theatrically.

“Those who lived exceptional lives get sent to Judgment. I’ve got three mortal souls, who used to be kings themselves. They weigh the deeds of a person and decide if they’re good enough for Elysium or great enough for Tartarus.” Ryan rolled a particularly large amethyst in between his forefinger and thumb. “Now tell me, has Hephaestus figured out that his wife is cheating on him yet?”

“Oh, he knows.” Shane grinned. “He set up this whole elaborate rig, got Aphrodite and Ares caught up in a net when they tried to go at it in his bed. Now everyone knows that Ares bottoms, and I don’t think Hephaestus is ever going to let him live that down.”

Ryan threw his head back and cackled. “Oh, what I would have given to see his face!”

“I was pretty funny. Or so I heard, anyway.” Shane’s voice trailed off and he looked away.

“You didn’t get to see?” Ryan sat up, peering at Shane’s face.

Shane hesitated, not wanting to spoil his day at the beach with talk of his mother. Ryan was looking at him expectantly, though.

“My mother, Demeter, she kept me inside. I wanted to go see when I first overheard Hephaestus’s plan, but she wouldn’t let me go. Said she didn’t want me exposed to that.” Shane said, aware he was mumbling the words.

Ryan frowned. “Didn’t want you exposed? What, you’re not a child, are you?”

Shane shook his head with a laugh. “No, I’m actually Demeter’s eldest. I’m not totally sure on the exact timing, but I know Hephaestus isn’t much older than I am.”

“And yet she keeps you all cooped up? No wonder you wound up down here.” Ryan’s tone was joking, but his words were serious. There was real sorrow in his eyes, mostly hidden, but still there. Shane realised he wasn’t the only one on that beach who knew the pain of being trapped somewhere that you couldn’t leave.

“I’m glad I ended up here, though.” Shane said softly. “It’s beautiful, and I enjoy your company.”

Ryan smiled at that, a small one that had the corners of his eyes crinkling nonetheless. “Me too.”

The rest of the day they spent discussing lighter topics, like Cerberus and the nearly unending list of ways Hera had taken revenge on the mortals Zeus had shacked up with. The conversation should have felt strained, the way they both so obviously avoided painful topics, but it didn’t. It felt respectful. Around midday, Ryan had yanked his chiton over his head and set it out of reach of the waves before running right into the dark surf. He struggled out until he was up to his waist in the water, nearly tripping the whole way there. Shane had laughed at him until Ryan had turned around and flung a handful of water at him in retaliation, prompting Shane to also strip and join the other god in the water. Oceanus was so much colder than the warm Mediterranean waters Shane was used to, but Shane hadn’t noticed the temperature difference until he got out, shivering, after their playfighting and swimming. When they finally walked back to the palace, Shane hadn’t been able to keep a smile off his face.

 

~*~

 

The next day, Shane could find hide nor hair of Ryan around the castle, so he figured Ryan had been called back to his duties by Jen. He tried not to be upset by that. He’d just need to entertain himself today.

Emboldened by his adventure yesterday, Shane decided he’d be alright taking a walk outside of the polished walls of the palace. He kept careful mental notes about the arrangement of stalactites overhead, though he was reasonably sure the spire where his bedroom was would be visible from almost everywhere in the underworld. He stuck to the path, letting his feet carry him through seas of fluorescent grass.

Sometimes, when the grass was at the thickest points, Shane felt eyes on him. He could never tell where they eyes were coming from, and the grass was always too still in these areas. If he speedwalked past those places, well. Shane didn’t think anyone would blame him.

Occasionally, he saw small spots where no grass grew out in the fields. The first one was mildly interesting, and his curiosity about these bald patches only grew the more he noticed. When he found one close enough to the path that he was sure he wouldn’t loose his way, he stepped off the road into the plants to investigate. It turned out to be a place where an outcropping of some sort of rick had forced its way to the surface and broken through the dirt. When Shane turned his head to examine it better, he could see iridescent lines that hinted at blues and greens underneath the black surface.

He went back to the path and continued his walk. After a few more minutes, he noticed the road had begun to take a slight curve upwards. The grass slowly began to shrink, becoming more and more sparse. The dirt was not the soft, dark loam that the Asphodel Fields boasted here. Here it was rougher, even just barren rock in some places. The rock was soft, though, full of pits and easy to crumble. Volcanic, if Shane was correct.

The volcanic ground made sense when he crossed a rock bridge over a strip of fire. The river looked like lava, though it ran a deeper red and flowed with the ease of water. In some places along the cooler banks, it looked as though it were a river of boiling blood. He could feel the heat of the bridge through the soles of his sandals as he went over.

The path climbed again, and the normal soil returned, though not the grass. Instead, a hazy sort of mist crept over the ground, like the kind of fog that rolls off the sea in the early mornings and makes the fisherman weary of their own waters. Trees lined the way, their trunks knarled and crooked like the elderly farmers from Demeter’s tapestry. Out to the left, between the trees, Shane swore he caught a glimpse of hooded figure steering a gondola full of cowed souls.

He stopped to rest after what seemed like ages of walking through the grove, or maybe it had only been seconds. The largest tree he’d seen yet was ahead of him in the path, so large and old that the road actually split around it, coming back together on the other side. There was a perfect spot to sit at the base of that tree, right between two roots. Shane sat himself down in the dry leaves, letting out a sigh.

He felt his eyelids droop for a moment, and he allowed them to fall shut. He inhaled deeply, the earthy scent of the underworld soothing.

When he opened his eyes, Ryan was in front of him. Shane smiled up at the other god, feeling fuzzy and unconcerned. Ryan didn’t say anything, just smiled back and sat beside him. He rested his head on Shane’s shoulder, the weight warm and comforting. Shane turned to press his nose into Ryan’s hair.

He blinked.

Demeter stood in front of him, hands on her hips. She didn’t look angry, just intent, and that was how Shane knew he was utterly fucked. He scrambled upwards, fingers digging into the bark behind him. Demeter took a step forward and Shane jerked away, trying to sidle around the tree. Arion was there, snorting in his face before he could even make it a few inches.

Shane blinked.

Ryan looked up at him, his smile gentle and fond now. The lines under his eyes were gone, he seemed relaxed, content. Ryan’s fingers brushed the back of his hand, just light enough to feel. It was questioning, Ryan asking permission. Always giving him a choice. Shane opened his hand and marveled in the feeling of Ryan’s palm against his. The skin was so soft in places, so rough in others. Not farmer’s hands that he was used to, but a warrior’s hands, Shane realised.

Blink.

Demeter stepped forward, her hands reaching for him. They snagged in the material of his chiton, nails turning to claws. Her face was haggard, Shane suddenly noticed. As if she’d aged a thousand years in a day. Her skin hadn’t gotten the soft-fabric look that mortal women got if they lived long enough, no sun warmed glow or gentle creases. No, Demeter looked as though someone had taken her soft clay figure and put it out into the merciless sun of the Egyptian’s desert until it had hardened and cracked.

Blink.

Ryan looked at their hands and looked at him, his mouth parted ever so slightly. Shane knew. He bent and pressed their lips together, hesitant at first. It was light, chaste, not something Shane had ever experienced before. It was the sweet summer kiss of a boy just barely a man to his long-time friend. The gentle wondering if maybe what they already had could be something more. Something better.

Blink.

Demeter’s claws ripped through his chiton as if it were nothing, raising angry red lines down the front of his chest. A vine broke through the ground at his feet, wrapping around his legs in thick, perfectly spaced coils. He was trapped, unable to move, watching in horror as his skin faded to bark. His mother slowly directed the growth up and, no matter how he struggled, the creeping bark refused to slow or bend. He could do nothing as he was slowly turned into a tree.

Blink.

Ryan’s hand was soft on his cheek, and Shane tilted his head happily. He gasped a little when Ryan opened his mouth, but there was nothing demanding about the way that they kissed. Ryan moved closer, their legs overlapping, nearly in Shane’s lap, and Shane debated breaking the kiss just to pull Ryan more firmly into the cradle of his arms. He couldn’t shatter the moment, though. It was too perfect.

Blink.

His waist was a tree, his hands beginning to sprout symmetrical white blossoms even as he tried to drag himself away. Demeter was laughing, but there was no sound to it. Arion pranced around him, hooves hitting like drums on the dirt. Someone was calling him, someone was shouting his name, but he couldn’t tell who as his ears were covered over with bark, he couldn’t hear anythin-

Shane opened his eyes.

“Oh, thank the gods. That wasn’t very smart of you.” The girl he’d seen in the garden a few days before was looking down at him. Panicked, Shane glanced around. Ryan was nowhere to be seen. Neither was Demeter. The girl sighed and shook her head at him, her curly hair bouncing around her face.

“That tree contains false dreams. You shouldn’t have touched the leaves. Let’s get you out of there.” She offered him a hand and pulled him to his feet as though he weighed nothing. “I’m the goddess of magic, Hecate. You can call me Sara. I know who you are, child of Demeter.”

Shane glanced away sheepishly. “Thank you.”

She gave him an amused look. “Walk back with me to Ryan’s monstrosity of a house and we’ll call it even.”

Shane offered her an arm almost mechanically and she took it smoothly.

“Why didn’t you talk to me the other day? In the garden.” Shane asked after a few steps.

Her face tinted pink. “I thought you’d caught me singing to them.”

“Singing to who?”

Sara’s skin seemed to ripple green for a split second, as if just thinking of the garden made her blend into it. “The plants. They’re all mine, you know. All magic. That’s how they grow. Instead of watering them, or giving them sunlight, I sing my magic into them.”

“So you are the gardener, then?” Shane watched a little blue mushroom, like the ones in the palace, sprout from Sara’s shoulder then die off.

“In a way, I suppose. I make all the plants here. Even that elm you fell prey to.” She shrugged.

They passed the river of fire and Shane was struck with a sudden thought.

“Is your magic the reason I’m not allowed to eat food here? Because all the food is grown with your magic, tied to this place?”

Sara looked at him, startled, then began to laugh. “Is that what Ryan told you? Oh, dear me, no. The food is grown by me, yes, but it’s absolutely normal. Our lord Hades is an awfully superstitious. Eating food here is more of a customary thing. Nearly everyone here is bound in someway, except for you. It’s merely symbolic. Once you eat here, it’s merely a sign that you’ve accepted this as your home.” Sara shook her head, seeming utterly amused by the question.

“A home, huh.” Shane wasn’t sure how loud the words came out, but he didn’t miss the knowing look Sara threw him.

 


End file.
